1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to a system and its methods for centralizing location updates, and more particularly, for centralizing location updates for location-based applications based on receipt of location inputs from location-providing applications.
2. Related Art
Consumers are becoming increasingly mobile. This increase in mobility creates many opportunities for organizations to provide consumers with location-based content and services. For example, a consumer may subscribe to a location-based restaurant review service that presents the consumer with a list of popular eateries that are located within driving distance of the consumer's current location. This service may also use the time of day to customize the list based on the type of meal (e.g., breakfast, lunch, or dinner). Consumers generally value this type of location-based content more than traditional content because it is more focused, relevant, and useful. Another service may provide a way that friends can track each other's locations, or other more user-integrated type services. Location-based content is information provided to a consumer that is keyed to a past, present or future geographic location of the consumer. Similarly, location-based services are services keyed to geographic location information for the consumer.
Additionally, the sources of location information related to a user of such applications have grown in recent years. These include devices that supply, for instance, a global positioning satellite (GPS) latitude and longitude coordinate set, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cell tower identifier, and a location related to a Wi-Fi access point media access control (MAC) address. Applications that integrate location information as part of a service provided to a user have heretofore used a single location source (or type of source) to provide location updates, and generally the location information obtained is destined for a single device or application.